1) John Carpenter

Stranger Things isn’t just about the visuals.It’s the musical score that really sets the retro tone for this series. Through the eight episodes that comprise the first season composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein weave a lush narrative of sound that is unmistakably in debt to the movie scores of John Carpenter. The man who directed They Live and Big Trouble In Little China created a style of synthesizer music all his own. Dixon and Stein loyally toil to recreate the sounds of 80’s greatness associated with Carpenter’s music while making Stranger Things wholly its own entity. Carpenter’s magnum opus The Thing is also given its due. A poster for the film is prominent in Mike’s room and in one scene the middle school science teacher gleefully explains the film’s nasty special effects to his squeamish date!

Stranger Things is packed to the gills with references to the stories that inspired it. If you’ve already watched all of it, watch it again. You might find a few that were missed!